Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner has hinted that the club made the wrong decision to part company with manager John Eustace in October.
The Blues had enjoyed their best start to a season in years under the guidance of the 44-year-old, with a 3-1 win over city rivals West Bromwich Albion moving them into the play-off places. However, that victory coincided with Wayne Rooney opting to leave his post at D.C. United, prompting the board to take swift action and bring the former England striker to St Andrew’s.
It was an unpopular decision amongst the fanbase, and their concerns turned out to be justified as the club soon found themselves tumbling down the table. Rooney’s reign proved disastrous, winning just two of his 15 games in charge before he too was shown the door with the team languishing in 20th.
Tony Mowbray was then drafted in, with form picking up before he was forced to take a leave of absence due to ill health. Since then, Mark Venus and Gary Rowett have both led the team, but the West Midlands side are now in very real danger of dropping into League One.
Birmingham now have five games to salvage their Championship status. They sit in the final relegation place having won just one of their last nine fixtures.
Eustace’s departure now seems like a real-life sliding doors moment, one in which Wagner admits was probably the wrong call:
“We made one decision that if we were to go back in time we wouldn’t have made,” he said, via the Daily Mail. “I don’t think we can ever ensure every decision we make will be a perfect one.
“There were some good lessons learned with some of the decisions we’ve made this year and there have been substantial learnings about how we think about making important decisions on the sporting side.
“In the context of having made thousands of decisions for the club this season, we made one that wasn’t perfect.”
Whereas their former bosses aren’t named, the report states that there is a regret surrounding their decision to bring in Rooney at a time when the club was in a healthy position.
Birmingham host Cardiff City tomorrow in what is considered a must-win game.
Wagner isn’t saying anything different to what everyone else has said all season. However, it is staggering to hear a senior club official admit that they made a major error of judgement.
Eustace was widely praised for the job he had done at St Andrew’s, especially last season under what was an extremely difficult situation. He was lined up by a number of Championship clubs before eventually settling at Blackburn Rovers, who ironically became Birmingham’s relegation rivals. Despite an indifferent start at Ewood Park, the 1995 Premier League champions should retain their second tier status.
